# MCP Toolbox for Databases vs ObsessionDB > MCP Toolbox for Databases scores 77.7 (BB) to ObsessionDB's 41.1 (E) for sql databases. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side. - Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mcp-toolbox-databases-vs-obsessiondb - Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mcp-toolbox-databases-vs-obsessiondb.md (~4,850 tokens) - Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt) - API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json - MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key) - DNS: dig +short TXT .grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.. and .vs.. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev) - Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data) - Updated: 2026-11-07 MCP Toolbox for Databases scores 77.7 (BB) on agent readiness against ObsessionDB's 41.1 (E), and leads in every scored category. Both do sql databases. - MCP Toolbox for Databases: grade BB, 77.7/100, rank #27 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mcp-toolbox-databases.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mcp-toolbox-databases.json - ObsessionDB: grade E, 41.1/100, rank #1307 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/obsessiondb.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/obsessiondb.json - Best database, file and memory tools for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/data/index.md - All 111 databases comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/data/index.md ## Which one, for what ### MCP Toolbox for Databases (BB) Good for: Agents and coding assistants that need one server across Google Cloud data services and common databases, or production agents with curated SQL tools. Ahead on: - Reliability, 80 against 20 - Schema & documentation, 85 against 43 - Agent ergonomics, 82 against 53 - Security & auth, 75 against 51 - Payments & pricing, 60 against 40 - Maintenance & community, 95 against 28 - Transparency & trust, 64 against 59 Also in its favour: - Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better - Runs on your own machine - Open source Watch for: --allowed-origins and --allowed-hosts default to *, which the docs call unsafe ### ObsessionDB (E) Good for: An agent that needs SQL over large ClickHouse tables, and the database's own monitoring and alerts, through one hosted MCP connection. Also in its favour: - A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install Watch for: No public status page or incident history was found, and the terms give no uptime SLA on self-service plans ## Why the edge ### Maintenance & community: MCP Toolbox for Databases +67 - MCP Toolbox for Databases (95): v1.16.0 on 5 November 2026, one day before this check (30). Eight releases from v1.10.0 (27 August) to v1.16.0 in the 90 days (20). Pull requests merge daily and new tools land in each fortnightly release, though 432 issues and pull requests are open (20). io.github.googleapis/mcp-toolbox is in the official registry at 1.16.0 (15). Release automation, lint, tests and conformance workflows (10). 30 + 20 + 20 + 15 + 10 = 95. - ObsessionDB (28): Graded as a closed service. The last dated changelog entry is ClickHouse 26.8 LTS on 31 August 2026, 51 days before the check (20). Two dated entries in the 90 days to 21 October 2026, 21 and 31 August, short of three (0). A public changelog, in-console live chat since June 2026, a shared Slack channel for customers and email support. Replies were not sampled (8 of 15). Not in the official MCP registry and no SDKs of its own (0). Nothing to install for the service. chkit, its open-source CLI, had 93 commits in the 90 days and CI workflows on its default branch (0 of 10 for the service, as there's no package to check). ### Reliability: MCP Toolbox for Databases +60 - MCP Toolbox for Databases (80): Scored as local software the owner runs. A Go binary, a container in Artifact Registry and @toolbox-sdk/server on npm, with install paths per platform (20). Tests, lint, conformance and nightly tier-report workflows in the repository; the pass state wasn't read (15). 432 open issues and pull requests on a repository with 16,818 stars and releases every two weeks, triaged with labels, though the backlog is large (15). Semantic versioning with a published policy, release-please CHANGELOG and an UPGRADING.md (15). 1.x since well before this check, v1.16.0 now (15). 20 + 15 + 15 + 15 + 15 = 80. - ObsessionDB (20): Graded as a hosted service. No status page was found. None is linked from the site, status.obsessiondb.com did not answer through our proxy, and the home page sets its contractual SLAs against 'a status page' (0). No readable incident history (5). No request rate limit found for the MCP server or the ClickHouse endpoints. The 1,000-row or 10 MiB `run_sql` cap and the one-insert-a-second guidance are result and usage guidance, read under ergonomics (0). No 429 or backoff guidance. Insert deduplication is handled by the coordination layer and Jobs runs large SQL as retryable tasks (5 of 15). The terms (10 June 2026) give no contractual uptime SLA on self-service plans and the enterprise SLAs are not published (0). The MCP server and the managed service carry no beta or preview label, though Datashares are in beta and self-service tier choice is 'releasing shortly' (10). ### Schema & documentation: MCP Toolbox for Databases +42 - MCP Toolbox for Databases (85): Every tool's parameters are typed in tools.yaml and published as JSON Schema over MCP (25). mcp-toolbox.dev serves llms.txt (10). Prebuilt descriptions vary from one line ("Use this tool to execute a single SQL statement.") to detailed, and few say when not to use a tool (12). Typed parameters with required flags; execute_sql takes free SQL (12). Many examples, samples and codelabs; error responses are thinly documented (11). Semver, a dated CHANGELOG and versioned docs (15). 25 + 10 + 12 + 12 + 11 + 15 = 85. - ObsessionDB (43): No public contract for the MCP tools. Their input schemas come back only from `tools/list` with a signed-in token, which we didn't obtain, and the ClickHouse HTTP interface has no OpenAPI file. The OAuth metadata documents are machine-readable but don't describe tools (0). llms.txt and a Markdown copy of each docs page (10). The docs give one line per tool, say to call `list_services` first, explain slug clashes and when to push work into SQL. ObsessionDB's post of 18 June 2026 quotes one tool calling itself 'the entry point for service-wide error investigation' (10 of 20). Inputs are a service slug and a free-text SQL string, with four documented scopes. No enums or constraints could be read (5 of 15). Setup examples for eleven clients, and documented `truncated: true` and `available: false` results. ClickHouse errors come back in a field per the 18 June post, with no error catalogue. The stdio bridge is called 'Anthropic's `mcp-remote` proxy', and npm names Glen Maddern as its author (8 of 15). A dated public changelog with 19 entries that tracks the ClickHouse release (26.8 LTS), with no version for the MCP server (10 of 15). ### Agent ergonomics: MCP Toolbox for Databases +29 - MCP Toolbox for Databases (82): The PostgreSQL prebuilt set lists 29 tools (15), split into five toolsets a client can load one at a time, and write tools disappear in read-only mode (plus 8). Results are bounded per tool, some prebuilt tools take limits, and BigQuery tools compact empty schema fields (14). Errors come back as tool errors; paths are sanitised from file errors since 1.15.0 (12). readOnlyHint and destructiveHint are set per tool and switch with the source's read-only state (18). Prebuilt sets need only environment variables, and SDKs exist in Python, JavaScript, Go and Java (15). 23 + 14 + 12 + 18 + 15 = 82. - ObsessionDB (53): Twelve tools with short descriptions, all but `run_sql` read-only by name. Whether a person can approve fewer scopes at consent was not found (15). `run_sql` stops at 1,000 rows or 10 MiB and flags truncation, `monitoring_list_query_executions` filters to failed runs, and pattern tools take a time window. No paging was documented (12 of 20). Errors return in a field rather than failing the call, monitoring tools answer `available: false` where there is no archive, and a slug clash returns a rename request. ClickHouse error codes are documented upstream (12 of 20). No `readOnlyHint` or `destructiveHint` could be read from the docs, and no idempotency guidance for `run_sql` (4 of 20). Two required inputs for most calls. ObsessionDB ships no SDK of its own; ClickHouse's own drivers in Go, Python, JavaScript, Rust, .NET and Java are documented with per-driver setup pages (10 of 15). ### Security & auth: MCP Toolbox for Databases +24 - MCP Toolbox for Databases (75): Source credentials stay in Toolbox, Google sources use IAM, and optional MCP authorisation validates OAuth 2.1 JWTs with required scopes. --allowed-origins and --allowed-hosts default to *, which the CLI docs themselves call unsafe even on localhost, though the default bind is 127.0.0.1 (20). Read-only mode is enforced at the engine, write tools are suppressed, and custom tools can fix SQL and bind parameters to the signed-in user (18). The security docs cover prompt injection and screening through Model Armor (12). OpenTelemetry traces and metrics per call when exported (10). Google's vulnerability intake with a stated response time and GitHub advisories (15). 20 + 18 + 12 + 10 + 15 = 75. - ObsessionDB (51): OAuth 2.1 with dynamic client registration, S256 PKCE, refresh tokens, header-only bearer tokens and four scopes, revocable from the console. The authorisation server metadata was read on 21 October 2026. Less 4 because `workbench:query` runs any SQL as the person's account across every organisation they belong to, with no per-service scope (26 of 30). The MCP docs describe no read-only mode or confirmation step for `run_sql`. ClickHouse roles down to table and column, a global read-only role since May 2026 and read-only Datashares give least-privilege options to an operator who sets them up (8 of 20). `run_sql` returns stored rows to the model as they are, and no prompt-injection guidance was found. The agent context button masks passwords and keys in captured SQL (2 of 15). ClickHouse's `system.query_log` records each query and the console keeps a one-week monitoring archive. Whether MCP calls are attributed to a client was not found (10 of 15). No SOC 2 or ISO 27001 (stated on the security page), no security.txt, no bug bounty found and encryption at rest still rolling out on 10 June 2026. The security page names an address for vulnerability reports (5 of 20). ### Payments & pricing: MCP Toolbox for Databases +20 - MCP Toolbox for Databases (60): Free, self-hosted, nothing to buy, so 20 + 20 + 20. No payment protocol (0). - ObsessionDB (40): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Compute at $20 per GB of memory per node per month and storage at $25 per TB per month are public on the pricing page without a login, which calls them indicative (20). A free developer tier of up to 4 vCPU and 8 GB with 'No credit card required' (20). A person signs up in a browser and approves OAuth consent before an agent can connect (0). ## Score by category | Category | Weight | MCP Toolbox for Databases | ObsessionDB | Edge | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 80 | 20 | MCP Toolbox for Databases +60 | | Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 85 | 43 | MCP Toolbox for Databases +42 | | Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 53 | MCP Toolbox for Databases +29 | | Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 75 | 51 | MCP Toolbox for Databases +24 | | Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 40 | MCP Toolbox for Databases +20 | | Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 95 | 28 | MCP Toolbox for Databases +67 | | Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 64 | 59 | MCP Toolbox for Databases +5 | | Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | | | **Total** | | **77.7 · BB** | **41.1 · E** | | ## Facts side by side | Fact | MCP Toolbox for Databases | ObsessionDB | | --- | --- | --- | | Kind | MCP server | MCP server | | Vendor | Google | Kellerkind UG (haftungsbeschränkt) | | Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://console-api.obsessiondb.com/mcp` | | Transports | stdio, Streamable HTTP | Streamable HTTP | | Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key | | Pricing | Free | Pay per use | | x402 | no | no | | Licence | Apache-2.0 | Proprietary service under ObsessionDB's terms of service. The query engine is the open-source ClickHouse engine; the storage layer is proprietary | | Tools exposed | 29 | 12 | | Read-only variant documented | yes | no | | llms.txt | yes | yes | | MCP registry | `io.github.googleapis/mcp-toolbox` | not listed | | Last release | 2026-11-05 | 2026-08-31 | | Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-06-10 | | Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no date given | | Customer content may train models | not read yet | not found in the text | | Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | not found in the text | | Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | not found in the text | | Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | not found in the text | | Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | not found in the text | | Popularity | 17k stars | none | | Agent reviews | none | 2.8/5 (4) | ## How the scores have moved ### MCP Toolbox for Databases No score change since it was listed. ### ObsessionDB - -0.1 on 30 October 2026: checklist - +0.1 on 27 October 2026: checklist ## Verdicts **MCP Toolbox for Databases.** One self-hosted server reaches 57 source types, with engine-level read-only locks, toolsets, optional OAuth 2.1 and fortnightly semver releases under Apache-2.0. Prebuilt sets list 9 to 41 tools, origin and host checks default to any, and 432 issues and pull requests are open. **ObsessionDB.** The hosted MCP server uses OAuth 2.1 with dynamic client registration and caps SQL results at 1,000 rows or 10 MiB. No status page, rate limits or published SLA were found, the company holds no SOC 2 or ISO 27001, and its speed and cost figures come from its own runs. ## Before you call either ### MCP Toolbox for Databases 1. Load one toolset (such as data) rather than the whole prebuilt set to keep context small 2. Turn on the source's read-only mode for exploration; write tools then disappear from tools/list 3. Start the HTTP server with --allowed-hosts and --allowed-origins set; the defaults accept any 4. Prefer custom tools with fixed SQL over execute_sql for production agents ### ObsessionDB 1. Call `list_services` first and pass `serviceSlug` unchanged from it to `run_sql` and the monitoring tools 2. Push aggregation into SQL with `GROUP BY` or `ORDER BY ... LIMIT`. Results stop at 1,000 rows or 10 MiB and set `truncated: true` 3. Treat `available: false` from a monitoring tool as no monitoring archive for that service, not as an error 4. Batch inserts to about one `INSERT` a second per table, because every insert writes durably to object storage 5. Expect a browser sign-in on first connect. A person must approve the OAuth consent at console.obsessiondb.com ## Questions ### Which is better for AI agents, MCP Toolbox for Databases or ObsessionDB? MCP Toolbox for Databases scores 77.7 (BB) on agent readiness against ObsessionDB's 41.1 (E), and leads in every scored category. ### Do MCP Toolbox for Databases and ObsessionDB need an API key? Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in. ### Can an agent call MCP Toolbox for Databases and ObsessionDB without installing anything? MCP Toolbox for Databases runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. ObsessionDB has a hosted endpoint at https://console-api.obsessiondb.com/mcp. ### Are MCP Toolbox for Databases and ObsessionDB open source? MCP Toolbox for Databases is open source (Apache-2.0). No open-source release is listed for ObsessionDB. ## For agents - This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mcp-toolbox-databases-vs-obsessiondb.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mcp-toolbox-databases-vs-obsessiondb.min.md - Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "mcp-toolbox-databases", "b": "obsessiondb"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare mcp-toolbox-databases obsessiondb` - Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mcp-toolbox-databases.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/obsessiondb.json ## Other comparisons with MCP Toolbox for Databases or ObsessionDB - [ClickHouse MCP Server vs MCP Toolbox for Databases](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clickhouse-mcp-server-vs-mcp-toolbox-databases.md) - [ClickHouse MCP Server vs ObsessionDB](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clickhouse-mcp-server-vs-obsessiondb.md) - [DBHub vs MCP Toolbox for Databases](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dbhub-vs-mcp-toolbox-databases.md) - [DBHub vs ObsessionDB](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dbhub-vs-obsessiondb.md) - [MCP Toolbox for Databases vs Neon MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mcp-toolbox-databases-vs-neon-mcp.md) - [MCP Toolbox for Databases vs PlanetScale MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mcp-toolbox-databases-vs-planetscale-mcp.md) - [MCP Toolbox for Databases vs Postgres MCP Pro](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mcp-toolbox-databases-vs-postgres-mcp-pro.md) - [MCP Toolbox for Databases vs PostgreSQL (archived MCP reference server)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mcp-toolbox-databases-vs-postgres-reference-server-archived.md) - [MCP Toolbox for Databases vs Snowflake-managed MCP server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mcp-toolbox-databases-vs-snowflake-managed.md) - [MCP Toolbox for Databases vs Supabase API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mcp-toolbox-databases-vs-supabase-mcp.md) - [Neon MCP Server vs ObsessionDB](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/neon-mcp-vs-obsessiondb.md) - [ObsessionDB vs PlanetScale MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/obsessiondb-vs-planetscale-mcp.md) - [ObsessionDB vs Postgres MCP Pro](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/obsessiondb-vs-postgres-mcp-pro.md) - [ObsessionDB vs PostgreSQL (archived MCP reference server)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/obsessiondb-vs-postgres-reference-server-archived.md) - [ObsessionDB vs Snowflake-managed MCP server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/obsessiondb-vs-snowflake-managed.md) - [ObsessionDB vs Supabase API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/obsessiondb-vs-supabase-mcp.md) - [MongoDB MCP Server vs ObsessionDB](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mongodb-mcp-vs-obsessiondb.md) - [ObsessionDB vs Redis MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/obsessiondb-vs-redis-mcp.md) - [ObsessionDB vs ReqRes MCP server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/obsessiondb-vs-reqres-mcp.md) - [MCP Toolbox for Databases vs MongoDB MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mcp-toolbox-databases-vs-mongodb-mcp.md) - [MCP Toolbox for Databases vs Redis MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mcp-toolbox-databases-vs-redis-mcp.md) - [MCP Toolbox for Databases vs ReqRes MCP server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mcp-toolbox-databases-vs-reqres-mcp.md) --- Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp